University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings Textile Society of America 9-2012 Embroidered Politics: A Case Study between al-Andalus and Castilla Miriam Ali-de-Unzaga Institute of Ismaili Studies,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf Ali-de-Unzaga, Miriam, "Embroidered Politics: A Case Study between al-Andalus and Castilla" (2012). Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. 655. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/655 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Textile Society of America at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Embroidered Politics: A Case Study between al-Andalus and Castilla Miriam Ali-de-Unzaga1
[email protected] Medieval documentary sources include numerous references of the superb quality and high quantity of Andalusi textiles.2 Even though textiles were produced and mentioned about al-Andalus between the 8th and the 16th centuries in the hundreds of thousands, today only a fraction survives –albeit in a considerable number (my estimation is that there are approximately 700 pieces extant in Spain, no official inventory exists). Most of them, made with silk and gold – with sophisticated techniques displaying elaborated iconography: figural, animal, vegetal and geometrical as well as Arabic calligraphy – have been superbly preserved within Spanish Christian treasuries thanks to their function as funerary shrouds for royals and ecclesiastics and as saint-reliquaries.